Governments and private companies around the world scrambled Thursday to evacuate citizens and workers from violence-hit Libya, as Italy braced for a “biblical” exodus of up to 300,000 migrants.
Fears of a full-scale civil war in the North African country prompted countries from Canada to China to scramble to charter ferries and planes to secure their citizens’ safety despite poor communication links and growing violence.
Thousands of foreigners packed Tripoli’s airport hoping to leave the widening chaos behind.
I am only scratching the surface here on what private security companies are actually doing in Libya. But to say the least, what they are doing is incredible and life saving. There are thousands of citizens and clients trapped in Libya, and it is a massive evacuation effort to get them all out. From the oil workers and engineers, to the diplomats and businessmen from all over the world–there is a massive exodus going on in Libya and private security companies are a crucial part of this evacuation.
One of the pieces of news that jumped out at me was the mention of the British SAS working with PSC’s to rescue British citizens. There are many of that country’s expats working in Libya, and they are scrambling forces to get in there and rescue folks. The PSC’s are on the ground already and many are prior service folks with connections to special forces units from all over. It makes perfect sense that they would coordinate with groups like the SAS. The point I wanted to emphasize here is that it isn’t just private industry or government doing this alone. This is an ‘all hands on deck’ moment, and it takes private industry and government working together to accomplish the task.
It is also important to note that we are hearing the same kinds of pleas coming from the folks trapped in Libya, that we heard in places like New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. That too was a massive evacuation effort that dwarfed the capabilities of the government and what was available to deploy right then and there. During that disaster, PSC’s were called upon to participate in a massive evacuation effort as well, and their use was driven by the concept of ‘do whatever it takes’ to save people. That included using private security along with the thousands of fire/police/military units from across the US. Plus, PSC’s can deploy extremely fast and can scale up or down pretty fast to meet the needs on the ground.
Now on to the future of PSC’s in Libya. After everyone is evacuated, the next step will be either extracting equipment or protecting it in place. There are millions, if not billions of dollars worth of equipment in the oil fields of Libya and I just can’t see the companies that either own or leased that equipment willing to just throw it away or leave it to be pillaged and neglected. Not to mention the money lost in oil revenues. So will we see future contracts like when EO was contracted back in the early nineties to rescue equipment for Ranger Oil in Angola? Who knows, but I do know that these oil company assets are definitely exposed and extremely vulnerable right now.
Finally, bravo to SOS International, Control Risks, Blue Mountain Group and all of the other PSC’s for all the work they are doing out there. These guys are saving lives in an an extremely dangerous and chaotic environment and they are the unsung heroes of this historic uprising spreading like fire across the Middle East and Africa. –Matt
BREAKING NEWS… Successful Libyan Evacuation
Control Risks supports clients in wake of Egypt protests
International SOS responds to unrest in Libya
SAS ready to rescue desert Britons
Countries rush to evacuate citizens from Libya
BREAKING NEWS… Successful Libyan Evacuation
Blue Mountain Group News
February, 2011
BLUE MOUNTAIN TEAM HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED A SAFE EVACUATION OF CLIENT PERSONNEL FROM LIBYA.
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